U.S. Crude Oil Stocks Fall by 2 Million Barrels in Week Ended March 15 — Update

By Anthony Harrup

U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week as refineries continued to increase their capacity use, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude-oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 2 million barrels to 445 million barrels in the week ended March 15, and were about 3% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said.

Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would decrease by 1.2 million barrels.

Oil stored in the SPR rose by 750,000 barrels to 362.3 million barrels.

Crude inventories at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, were little changed at 31.4 million barrels. Refinery capacity use rose by 1 percentage point to 87.8%. Refinery runs were forecast to rise by 0.8 percentage point.

U.S. crude oil production was steady at 13.1 million barrels a day, while imports rose by 787,000 barrels a day to 6.3 million barrels a day and exports increased by 1.7 million barrels a day to 4.9 million barrels a day.

Gasoline inventories were down by 3.3 million barrels at 230.8 million barrels in a seventh consecutive weekly draw, and were about 2% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline demand was 8.8 million barrels a day, 235,000 barrels a day less than the previous week.

Distillate fuel stocks rose by 624,000 barrels to 118.5 million barrels and were 5% below the five-year average.

Gasoline and distillate stocks were forecast to decline by 2.1 million barrels and 1.2 million barrels, respectively, in the Journal survey.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended March 15: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:          -2.0          -3.3            0.6                  1.0 
Forecast:          -1.2          -2.1           -1.2                  0.8 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2024 11:32 ET (15:32 GMT)

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